Welcome to my blog..

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. ~Pablo Picasso

Thoughts for the Teaching Artist is devoted to an ongoing exploration of the role of the arts in education. I believe that the arts are an integral, essential part of every person's education. Arts education develops 21st Century Learning Skills, supports all core subjects, creates empathy & builds bridges, and helps develop voice & vision.

The views expressed in Thoughts for the Teaching Artist are mine alone and do not represent the views of my employer or any other persons or organization.



Monday, February 28, 2011

The Future is Coming! The Future is Coming!

If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there. ~Lewis Carroll

The future is coming- whether you like it or not.  As Teaching Artists, we strive to honor the accumulated wisdom of the past, and work diligently to pass at least some of that wisdom on to our students.  However, it is incumbent upon us to spend at least as much time thinking about the future, and our students' role in that future.  The National Association of Independent Schools puts it this way:

At first glance, it seems surprising that the arts play such an integral role in schools of the future. But on second thought, it makes perfect sense.

Clearly, the arts promote creative thinking, teach flexibility and adaptability, and encourage risk-taking. The arts also develop self-expression and communication skills. Perhaps most important, at a time when students are developing a sense of personal identity, the arts provide a safe environment for students to “try-on” different identities and roles.


Public performance is the most terrifying thing most of us ever face. Perhaps for this reason, the intensity of the arts, especially the performing arts, fosters discipline, a work ethic, and the realization that practice trumps talent.

Similar to good athletic programs, well-managed arts programs focus on developing individual competence while simultaneously fostering an esprit de corps that aspires to the highest levels of teamwork.

Finally, these noteworthy schools support the investment in arts programs because the arts provide moments of beauty and  fulfillment that relieve stress and fill young hearts with hope and joy.

From A Guide to Becoming a School of the Future © 2010 National Association of Independent Schools

Friday, February 11, 2011

Daily Thoughts

February 7 - 11, 2010

We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible. ~Vince Lombardi

I will not retire while I've still got my legs and my make-up box. ~Bette Davis

There can be no joy in living without joy in work. ~ St. Thomas Aquinas

The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks. ~Tennessee Williams

Life is hard. After all, it kills you. ~Katharine Hepburn

Friday, February 4, 2011

Daily Thoughts

January 31 - February 4, 2011

You specialize in something until one day you find it is specializing in you. ~Arthur Miller

It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light. ~ G. K. Chesterton

My mother said to me, 'If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.' Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso. ~Pablo Picasso

Believe me; the living artist needs an advocate. ~Howardena Pindell

Through spontaneity we are re-formed into ourselves. It creates an explosion that for the moment frees us from handed-down frames of reference, memory choked with old facts and information and undigested theories and techniques of other people's findings. Spontaneity is the moment of personal freedom when we are faced with reality, and see it, explore it and act accordingly. In this reality the bits and pieces of ourselves function as an organic whole. It is the time of discovery, of experiencing, of creative expression. ~Viola Spolin